Holy Spirit

Hard Law, Hot Gospel 5 | The Law of Love

by Ben Zornes · Mar 17, 2025

Introduction

We are not saved by the Law, or the works of the Law. But if the Gospel makes us alive, we really must ask the question, what are we made alive to do? What do those who receive this new life occupy their time with? Paul answers that question here in our text.

The Text

1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. 3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. […]
Galatians 5:1ff

Summary of the Text

Contrary to the view of some expositors of the great St. Paul, he is not anti-Law. This chapter begins with the imperative: stand fast! The Judaizers were moving the goalposts of how Gentiles were to be ushered into the people of God; so Paul commands them to stand steadfast in the liberty that faith in Christ brings. Remember, Christ’s faith in God’s promise secured for all people from all nations the possibility of inclusion in the inheritance promised to Abraham, by faith in Christ. This is the liberty Paul insists the Galatians have received (v1). In contrast, if they submit to be circumcised, they are binding themselves to go through all the other hoops of an order which was passing away (vv2-3). Such a course of action makes Christ ineffectual, and guts grace of its potency (v4). The immaturity of looking at circumcision status is contrasted with trusting in what the Spirit does, namely, waiting in hope for the righteousness by faith (v5). Circumcision’s purpose in redemptive history had fulfilled its purpose; in its place was faith alone, full of love to God and neighbor (v6).

The Galatians had gone from running well to face-planting terribly (v7). Someone had persuaded them to disobey the truth, and this was worse than finding leaven in their Passover loaves (vv7-9). Paul denounces this troubler, and expresses his confidence that the Galatians will right the ship (v10). Nevertheless, it should be plain that the persecutions which Paul had and continued to endure were not the result of preaching circumcision; it came because of the skandalon of the cross (v11). In one of Paul’s sharpest remarks, he expresses the desire that the troubler would be totally emasculated (v12, Deu. 23:1).

Paul now elaborates on how the passing away of the “age of the Law” does not lead to lawless chaos. Through Christ we have been brought into the maturity of liberty, which means we must not treat liberty as if we were a child left alone in a candy shop (v13). Rather, love should be the prevailing motivation of those set free by Christ; Paul sums up the Law: love thy neighbor as thyself (v14). The flesh devours, but walking in the Spirit puts a stronger chain on our lusts than the Law ever could (vv15-16).

There is a great chasm between the sons of Hagar and the sons of Sarah. These sons are at war with each other, and cannot be reconciled. Sons of unbelief and sons of faith cannot have peace with each other (v17). The Spirit brings new creation, which the Law safeguarded until the time of Christ’s coming (v18). The flesh is an orchard full of rotten fruit, and those who bear such fruit are not citizens of Christ’s Kingdom (vv19-21). The Spirit bears the fruit of Eden’s tree of Life within us (vv22-23). The husk guards the seed, but once it sprouts it can no longer contain the tree (v23b). Once more, our union to this life is found by being crucified with Christ (2:20) and thus are dead to the deathly old way of being human (v24). The Spirit has begotten us by faith (justification) so now we ought to walk by the Spirit (sanctification); which rules out the vanity of the triangles which envy traps us in (vv25-26).

The Great War

Paul’s polemic is not a narrow attack on legalism and those silly enough to think they could impress God by shaving their beards a certain way, wearing skirts a certain length, or by avoiding the addicting power of syncopated beats. But neither is it an invitation to reject all rules. Sinners walk by unbelief in their elaborate false doctrines, and sinners walk by unbelief in grotesque debauchery.The Christian isn’t supposed to balance themselves in between the legalist and the libertine. Rather we should set both sorts of fools on one side and believers on the other.

Paul identified in the last chapter that this great war was between Hagar’s sons and Sarah’s sons. In this chapter the same strife is identified: Flesh or Spirit. Unbelief or Faith. Sinai or Calvary. Your righteousness or Christ’s. Man in Adam or man in the Last Adam. The great war divides mankind between those who walk by faith in Christ, or those who refuse to acknowledge Him as King of Heaven and Earth. Paul demonstrates how great the chasm is between those who are walking by the flesh and those walking by the Spirit. Walking by externals, or walking by the new life of Christ which has invaded the world.

The Covenant Sign

This is why, for Paul, the Judaizers’ insistence on the Gentiles being circumcised becomes a hill to die on. Rushdoony, in his typically insightful way, points out that circumcision was symbolic castration. It was given by God to be a sign of trust; not in human generation, but in heavenly regeneration. In Adam all die, but in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. 15:22).

Man needed to be born again, and in Christ, by faith in Christ, this new birth is held out to you. Circumcision pointed Israel to hope for the new birth. This new birth would be accompanied by the washing of the Spirit (Cf. Jn. 3:5 – Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.). This washing had come and was signified by baptism. So then, the promise of the Spirit was to be received by faith as signified by baptism, not by the work of the circumcising knife.

This is why we must insist––even as we labor to reform society, even as we labor to worship the Lord decently and in order––on the absolute necessity of the new birth. We must never draw near the Lord with only our lips, while our hearts are far from Him. We have potent signs: baptism and bread and wine. But are you harboring secret sin? Are you indulging worldly lusts? Are stage four with the cancer of envy?

Fruit for Citizens

The Serpent was enticing the Galatians to grasp the fruit through fleshly willfulness instead of walking by trust in God’s clear Word. The Judaizers were enticing the Galatians to grasp after externals, instead of walking by certain faith that God’s promise had been fulfilled by Christ’s faithfulness. Paul’s Gospel invited them to taste the fruit of the tree of life, and enjoy the liberty of that life.

But that liberty was not aimless, or do as you will. Each of the nine-fold attributes of the fruit of the Spirit are easily connected to imperatives found elsewhere in Scripture. Love one another (Jn.13:34). Rejoice always (Phi. 4:4). Seek peace and pursue it (Heb. 12:14). Endure afflictions (2Ti 4:5). Let your gentleness be evident to all (Phi. 4:5). Maintain good works (Gal. 6:10). Shewing all good fidelity (1 Cor. 4:2). Shewing all meekness unto all men (Col. 3:12). Be sober-minded (1 Pt. 5:8). This liberty of new life brings us as citizens to imitate our King. All this was promised of old (Cf. Is. 32:15, Is. 57).

The Belgic Confession is worth quoting at length on this point:

We believe that this true faith, produced in us by the hearing of God’s Word and by the work of the Holy Spirit, regenerates us and makes us new creatures, causing us to live a new life and freeing us from the slavery of sin. Therefore, far from making people cold toward living in a pious and holy way, this justifying faith, quite to the contrary, so works within them that apart from it they will never do a thing out of love for God but only out of love for themselves and fear of being condemned. So then, it is impossible for this holy faith to be unfruitful in a human being, seeing that we do not speak of an empty faith but of what Scripture calls “faith working through love,” which moves people to do by themselves the works that God has commanded in the Word.

These works, proceeding from the good root of faith, are good and acceptable to God, since they are all sanctified by God’s grace. Yet they do not count toward our justification—for by faith in Christ we are justified, even before we do good works. Otherwise they could not be good, any more than the fruit of a tree could be good if the tree is not good in the first place. So then, we do good works, but not for merit—for what would we merit? Rather, we are indebted to God for the good works we do, and not God to us, since God “is at work in [us], enabling [us] both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

Sin––at its root––is living as if Christ has not come. Sin is living in the old world. Sinful man prowls around looking for anything at all to give him meaning. It might look like sexual indulgence, or strict adherence to cultic rites. It may take the form of murder in blind rage, or the surgical deception of multitudes. All of it is the fruit of the flesh; it’s willful unbelief in the new creation work which Christ began.

But you are not of the flesh, but of the Spirit. If you have been born of the Spirit you are a citizen of this kingdom. Here is fruit to nourish you. From start to finish Your new life is marked by faith. Faith in the complete work of Christ, and faith in every act of love’s duties. The seed of the Law has burst forth into an oak tree of love.

Charge & Benediction

By faith you are brought into the new creation. You are thus empowered to truly walk according to the precepts of God’s Law. Justified through no works of your own, but sanctified unto good works. The Spirit brings you alive. And living people, full of the Spirit of the God who is Love, will act according to the law of love.

Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work. Amen.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Other Sermons in this series

The Holy Spirit Before and After

by Ben Zornes · May 28, 2024

Gregory Nazianzen once said “The Holy Spirit goes before baptism and follows after it.” This should come as an immense comfort to us as we consider the life of temptation and trial which not only lies before this little one, but before each one of us. Your justification isn’t left to you to try to procure. Nor is your sanctification a meandering search for what does or doesn’t work.

Rather, before you sought after God, He, by His Spirit, sought after you, which is in part what this sign declares. But now, after your baptism that same Spirit continues the good work He began to do. You rest between the great pillars of the Spirit’s work to bind You to Christ in the first place, and the keep you in Christ forevermore.

So welcome our brother to Jesus Christ…

The Spirit & the Waters

by Ben Zornes · Jan 15, 2024

The waters of baptism are often associated with Jesus’ cleansing blood. His blood indeed cleanses us from all unrighteousness. However, from the first pages of Scripture we’re also taught to associate the water with the Holy Spirit’s movement.

The Spirit hovered over the waters and so commenced the making of the world. Noah sent out a dove to see whether the floodwaters had receded; it returned with the olive branch assuring Noah that God had remade the world. The wind split the Red Sea for Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. Joshua led Israel through the Jordan, and Elisha passed through that same Jordan, both then accomplished great feats of Spirit-empowered conquest. Lastly, the Spirit descended as a dove upon Jesus at His baptism, heaven opened, and the Father declared His pleasure in Christ, the New Man. So then, our baptism not only represents the cleansing blood of Christ, but also the Spirit’s power to remake us, and the Father’s pleasure in us by Christ.

So welcome our brother to Jesus Christ…

The Fire-Light

by Ben Zornes · May 30, 2023

Some shroud this meal in mystery and dark clouds of unknowable mists. It is thought that the sacraments should be vague, shadowy, and too high for the common man to contemplate. But this is contrary to the entire warp & woof of Scripture’s revelation.

In the wonderful works of God, His Spirit always brings the light of glory. When God made the world, the Trinity in Unity was at work. The Father presiding & speaking, the Word upholding, and the Spirit bringing light & life in the darkness and formlessness of the world.

Once more, when God cut a covenant with Abram, the glory of the Spirit appeared as a smoking furnace & burning pot passing through the divided animals, bringing covenantal light and assurance to Abram. To a thousand generations, God’s blessing was promised to this man who had come out from Ur of the Chaldees.

When Moses set up the the tabernacle, and all was in accordance with God’s revealed will on Sinai, fire-light fell. Showcasing that God’s presence would indeed dwell in the midst of His people. And once again at Solomon’s temple, the fire-light of the Spirit consumed the sacrifice and filled the temple with glory.

All of this was foreshadowing the glory-fire that came to dwell within us by Christ sending forth his Spirit on the glorious day of Pentecost. In the coming of the Spirit, the fire-light of God’s glory had come. Christ’s earthly work & ministry, in obedience to the Father, was ratified by the tongues of fire on Pentecost. True comfort had come, for the Comforter had come to dwell in all of God’s people.

In this meal, the glory-light of the Spirit descends to shine once more. As we behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the Spirit shines in us, as we taste the bread of assurance, and drink the wine of Gospel comfort.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

1 John 4:1-3 | Stranger Danger

by Ben Zornes · Dec 2, 2022

1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2 In this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. 3 But every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God; and this is that antichrist that you have heard should come and even now is in the world already.
1 John 4:1-3

John moves on to addressing a question which his last statement (3:24) might raise. How do I know that it is indeed the Spirit of God which dwells in me? You know that you dwell in Christ by faith because Christ gives His Spirit to you. False prophets (the word here is literally pseudo-prophets) have gone out into the world, and those who heed such charlatans will be tempted to misgivings about whether they indeed have the Spirit of God dwelling in them. Beyond that, false teachers will endeavor to convince true saints that the real Spirit of God is over here, in this white, windowless van. John is giving the “stranger danger” talk to his beloved children.

So John tells us to prove the spirits. The word here is used elsewhere in Scripture and is used more broadly to describe the testing of a counterfeit coin against the genuine. It was not uncommon for ancient coinage to have bits shaved off in order to gradually produce more (but fraudulent) coins. John says to hold up an objective truth against a spirit and by this test determine whether it is the genuine Spirit of God, or the spirit of Antichrist.

That which confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. Now this might seem overly simplistic, but here is the basic Christian confession: God became man, He was name Jesus, and He was the Christ who died, but by the power of God rose again. In other words, this “test” John gives is a proto-creed. Did the eternal Christ come in the flesh as the man Jesus of Nazareth? Yes. And this, it should be evident, is the Gospel Comfort which the Spirit of God takes from the Father and the Son and shows unto us (Cf. Jn. 16:13-15).

Therefore, it follows quite logically that the central lie of heresies is that Jesus Christ is not come in the flesh. In other words, antichrist spirits want to dodge and evade the plain testimony that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Put plain as day, it isn’t of God to deny the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Notably absent in much of the modern evangelical infatuation with “the Antichrist” is that it misses this central error of false prophets. It thinks of Antichrist as some political figure. But John tells us that this figure (which I take to be Cerinthus in particular) was already in the world, and that his teachings which denied the incarnation of Jesus Christ must be kicked to the doctrinal curb. This antichrist spirit was already in the air in John’s day, and we know the central error of that “hydra-like” doctrine.

The practical application here is that the Christian is not stuck in an endless esoteric guessing game. The Word, the same Word which made heaven and earth, came in the flesh. By faith, you partake of the triune God’s divine joy. Any imaginative gymnastics routine which tries to reject the Gospel that Jesus Christ came in the flesh (and by implication lived, died, and rose again for our salvation) can, not so politely, be told to touch grass.

Our Point of Unity

by Ben Zornes · Nov 1, 2022

There’s a common tendency for mankind to desire unity, but to seek for it outside of God Himself. Ecumenical movements try to thread a needle and appear united under some generic, Christ-less, spirituality. Politicians bloviate about “finding common ground”. The media chant their familiar mantras about how we all need to come together. Well, let me break some news, we have here in this sacrament what they all want.

The Saints have unity. We are made one with our Head. We are one body with each other. The same Spirit dwells in the whole. It isn’t a divided Spirit, but the Holy Spirit, who unites us to Christ our head. But this unity is the result of a Broken & Bloody Christ. This is the only basis for true unity.

By this union we become more & more like Christ, shunning our sins ever more vehemently, laboring all the more earnestly to do God-glorifying works, and seeking to keep the unity which Christ’s Spirit has imparted. The truth we confess at this table is that of a whole Christ. He is ascended bodily to the Father’s right hand, He is the head of the church, and as such, His Spirit fills all in all.

This means for each of us, that you aren’t left to live a Christian life without Christ. You live out the Christian life because He has joined you to Himself and to His body, and He’s sent forth His Spirit to dwell richly in you and every other saint. And because He dwells in us richly, our songs our loud. Our praise is hearty. Our joy in Him and our fellow saints is overflowing. The only point of unity for mankind is to come here. Come to Christ. Come taste the broken bread. Come drink this cup of wine. And nevermore hunger or thirst.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

An Ecclesiastical Optical Illusion

by Ben Zornes · Oct 31, 2022

We’re in the midst of an ecclesiastical optical illusion. Mainline denominations are bleeding members. Young people are increasingly identifying as “nones” when it comes to religious identity. But there’s more going on under the hood than we can see. After all, the convulsions that transformed Europe during the Protestant Reformation came unlooked for.

Though our nation was once robustly Protestant, it looks to the eye as if that heritage is withering on the vine. One need only look further afield to see that the legacy of American Protestantism is rapidly taking root in the far east and global south. And in the soil of those nations, tribes, and tongues the Spirit of the Reformation is once again blowing new life into His people.

But here at home, we also see the Spirit of Elijah pouring barrels of water on the altar. Young people are historically irreligious. Churches have closed, or opted for online, disembodied “church”. The world is enticing a generation to serve the weak gods of secularism, carnal appetite, and bland activism. In this moment, it falls to the saints of God to remain utterly resolute in the faith once delivered. We are the heralds of the Good News of guilt forgiven, sins washed clean, shame lifted. We are the ambassadors of Christ the King of kings. We are the laborers sent to harvest the fields which are ripe for harvest.

As in the Reformation, our task isn’t to innovate some new insight into the old, old story. Our task is to proclaim that old, old story plainly, boldly, and joyfully. Christ died in your stead, that your sins might be forgiven and that God the Father might count you freely and forever justified in His sight. Don’t lose heart, God is preparing us for a new Reformation.

Our nation has forsaken the Word of Truth. We have embraced the spirit of this age and we are drunk with its folly, instead of being filled with the Holy Spirit. The truth which those faithful Reformation saints recovered is the same truth which God summons us to lay hold of and proclaim without fear, and with all sincerity. God the Father is the judge and the justifier of all who call upon His Son Jesus. May the Lord renew our zeal for the Gospel, that that blade of truth might go forth in our day and age with the piercing glory of converting power. Our cry to God should be, “Bring the nations home, and forgive us for harboring our sin and our error and our compromise.”

If we welcome sin in the midst of the church that His ears will not hear. So may God grant to the saints true evangelical faith and repentance. A new reformation & revival will only take place by the Spirit; but the Spirit humbles us, and this is one of the marks of genuine revival is sincere confession of sin. If you desire revival, it must begin here at home in your heart, here in the midst of God’s people.